Image credit: Jon Gellweiler

A new coach, two gun imports and an energised young group delivered South West Slammers a first NBL1 West win in three years and first home victory in five to bring hope for what lies ahead.

There was no bigger challenge in the country than taking on the Slammers job but that was something that Mark Edman was up for because he saw that there was an impressive core group of emerging players that just needed some support.

Part of what was having a coach and leaders to help set up the culture with Edman quick to make sure he had Kate Fielding and Courtney Bayliss on board to virtually be playing assistant coaches.

The last piece of the buzzle was two imports to add that bit of match-winning class and one game in, and Mykea Gray and Cayla King more than delivered combining for 45 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

The end result was the perfect start to the season for the Slammers on Saturday night with the drought breaking 84-66 win over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

It was the end of a 52-game losing streak for the Slammers and their first win since beating East Perth at Mirrabooka on May 21, 2022, and then a first home win at Eaton Recreation Centre since beating the Rockingham Flames on May 17, 2019.

"It was pretty electric for everybody in the building and to be honest I didn’t realise just how much it meant to the whole basketball community, but that's what we set out to achieve," said coach Edman.

"Rightfully everybody was, and should have been, excited by our turnaround and it's been a really enjoyable few days since to be honest and now we turn our attention to trying to back it up."

Feelings when the win looked possible

While Edman had been happy with the work done in the pre-season to firstly build his Slammers roster and then to work on their culture and game plan, believing they could win had to come once the season started.

The new coach started to see signs they were believing in the second quarter and then when they continued to have all the answers for the Eastern Suns, suddenly Edman became 1-0 on a team that had lost 52 straight matches coming into 2025.

"It was a bit of a mixed bag of emotions and any coach when you've got a lead, you never take that for granted so I think for myself personally it's not over until that last siren goes," Edman said.

"You kind of have a good indication by the two or three-minute mark by the flow of the game and how the players are going, and what the players are doing so that's when I first thought it might be OK to start shifting out players and going to our bench.

"In my mind it was about a minute or two to go when I thought we might have it and you could see a big mental shift happen with the girls.

"And to be fair, that probably started in the second quarter and that's when they started to believe that they can actually compete, and win the game and that sluggish acceptance of losing wasn’t there.

"That was the first time that I actually got to see that belief in the team and everyone in the stadium could see that it was different.

"The style of play was different, the energy was different and the emotion from the girls was just about wanting to win which is what we had been talking about and trying to put that 52-game streak behind us to get rid of that mental block and move forward."

Building around the young core group

When Edman took on the job coaching the Slammers, he could see a good young core of local players there that just needed some guidance, and experienced and top-quality help to show them the way.

That's what was on show in the win over the Eastern Suns with Javene Fitch, Nyidier Riak, Skye Palmer, Bree Chalk, Alex Donovan and Addison Edwards all leading the way.

Then to top off it there was the class of the imports Gray and King, and the experience both by action and with their advice from Fielding and Bayliss.

"Even when I watched a few games last year since moving to the south west and I saw how the girls played and it was like they never gave no matter what the scoreboard said," Edman said.

"So I knew there was a good core of belief there in the team so part of what I wanted to have a look at was how we can best develop our local players because as a regional team it's important we build around that group through good people and culture, and then fill the shortfalls with imports.

"We've now spent six months defining roles and learning and practicing them, and Javene is a perfect example. She had a huge role to play on Saturday and it was to play defence and to box out Karly Murphy because that was a big part of our strategy.

"Her and Baylo knew that's what they had to do and everybody has embraced their role, and going forward as part of a team sticking to your role and you can get the rewards you deserve when you do that.

"We still have a lot of room for improvement obviously, but that is a really good starting point and we want to continue seeing progression if everyone sticks to their strengths."

Having two virtual playing assistant coaches

Edman was fully aware that he couldn’t just come in as coach and expect to turn the culture of Slammers around on his own, and there are no two people he could have called upon better equipped to help than Fielding and Bayliss.

Combining for 573 games in the league, they bring that natural experience, but it's their leadership and guidance they can provide for the young group that Edman was after with anything they can still give on the court a bonus.

"I also needed to have a mentorship program in there and having imports and then our two leaders Baylo and Kate is so important to give the right support to the younger girls to show them how to play, and what you need to do," Edman said.

"Having that example set from quality imports and strong leaders probably hasn’t been there for the younger girls in the program for some time now, so that's important and I'm never going to have the answers and they are invaluable to help me.

"To bring in those other mentors that helps me do my job and I feel like they will only grow with that responsibility throughout the season, and the whole process will help us continue to win games."

Two exciting imports to top it off

As much as Edman was happy with that young core and his experienced pair, he knew that for the Slammers to truly take a huge step in their competitiveness in 2025 they needed to get their imports right.

After one game, it certainly appears they have with Gray putting up 24 points, seven steals, four assists and three rebounds on 3/5 three-point shooting and 7/11 overall with 7/9 at the foul line having come out of the University of Miami, and having a previous NBL1 East stint at the Newcastle Falcons.

Then there was King delivering 21 points, seven rebounds and three steals with 5/11 long-range shooting in what is just her second stop since graduating from Virginia Tech.

"When you've got Mykea and Cayla in there who are elite athletes with outstanding background, I still pinch myself with how lucky I was to be able to pick them up," Edman said.

"But that was the full intention to be able to get the right people in and not just from a basketball ability, but a culture side to fit within the team. The girls all really connect well together and it's a joy to coach them all from that side of things as well."

Taking on the coaching role

Stepping back a few months and after Edman initially returned to the Perth Redbacks to be assistant coach with CJ Jackson going back to the club he played at through the mid-1990s, he wasn’t sure if coaching was still on the cards after he stepped away and made the move to the south west of WA.

Edman had a stint as caretaker coach at the Redbacks but decided not to pursue that head coaching role and nor did he put up his hand to coach their women's team when a vacancy opened up.

"Redbacks were extremely supportive as a club for me. I played there when I was younger and I played under CJ, and we had a really good culture and that was part of him wanting me to come back to help rebuild that in that group," Edman said.

"Then when I had to take over as head coach mid-season, the club was very supportive in encouraging me to carry on but I just didn’t feel like that was the right thing to do at that time for the club and the playing group, and even myself.

"That's when I asked them to advertise and Nixy (Charles Nix) came in and I still believe that was the best thing for the club to do at that time.

"I stayed on to support Nixy but in that time myself and my partner were looking at potentially moving down south to have a bit more of a relaxing life, and for a bit of a change, and that's when I didn’t put my hand up to be part of either of Redbacks programs because it wasn’t going to work from down south."

It wasn't initially part of Edman's plans to put his hand up to coach the Slammers for 2025, but upon some urging from former championship winning player and current men's assistant Paul Craig, the more he thought about it the more he thought it might actually be just the job he craved.

"Then when we moved down here and got settled last year, it was pretty much the Craigs who were trying to convince me to put my hand and that's when I seriously looked at it, and in the end I bit the bullet and I liked the challenge of having to come in and try to build a culture," Edman said.

"I like that in life and if ever I was going to be challenged to see if I could do something then this was it. I felt really great support from Slammers and they didn’t have huge expectations of a championship, it was more about modest growth and wanting consistency and somebody to bring stability and competitiveness.

"That was all the right encouragement for myself to feel like I could come in and make an impact by building that culture rather than feeling the pressure of a championship first up.

"Having said that, I'm super competitive and will want to win every game that we can, but we're trying to rebuild a program and give a better pathway for the female athletes to compete at a higher level."

Trip to Kalgoorlie this week

The last time the Slammers won a game back in 2022 that was the end of a 41-game losing streak and they would end up losing another 52 straight matches before winning again.

What that means is that complacency is the last thing Edman and his Slammers will be as they hit the road to take on the Goldfields Giants this Saturday, but with their opponents on their own nine-game losing run there's no reason they can't improve to 2-0.

"I don’t think any coach goes into a game thinking they're going to lose and that's the mindset of us coaches and players is that we have to continue to look forward, and do what we can to win," Edman said.

"So our focus shifted effectively on Tuesday night and I let the girls have their time to enjoy the win before that, and then it's past and we have to shift our focus to this Saturday.

"It's a long road trip and it's never easy coming home from Kalgoorlie if you lose especially so we'll be doing everything we can to make sure we don’t have to do that.

"It's always a difficult road trip and we don't really know what to expect from their team and we can only go on what they did last week, but every team's dangerous and we'll put together a strategy of what we want to do and hopefully we go out there and compete.

"Of course, we're confident if we do that we can come back with the result but in our situation we're certainly never going to be taking anything for granted especially making the trip out to Kalgoorlie against a team with good players in their squad."

Chris Pike

Slammers women talk of the town after breaking drought